“I am very sad for our city. They no longer address only people. Now it is our history and our heritage that are in danger. » Mohamed Awada, deputy mayor in charge of tourism and heritage of the city of Baalbek, is dismayed. The 150,000 visitors who came each summer to visit the city’s ancient sites are now just a distant memory. The city’s temples, one of the most imposing vestiges of Roman architecture at its peak, watch over a city at war and in suffering. On November 6, dozens of residents were killed in a series of Israeli attacks, one of which reached the vicinity of the Acropolis.
A grayish dust covers the parking lot, the corpses of charred vehicles and comes to lick the columns of Boustan Al-Khan, the odeon that marks the entrance to a two thousand year old site. Of the stone building called “Menshiyé” and its arcades decorated with arabesques, built in 1928 in Ottoman style, only a pile of rubble remains. There, around 7:00 p.m., an Israeli missile fell 50 meters from the perimeter of the site, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The explosion also destroyed windows and elements of the façade of the Palmyre Hotel, opened in 1874, which offers a spectacular view of the temples of Bacchus and Jupiter, the two jewels of the city.
Two churches, one Maronite and one Orthodox, Saydet Al-Maounet and Mar Gerios, crowded in front of the temple entrance, suffered damage to the roof, carpentry and glazing. About twenty families, mostly Shiites, who had taken refuge there since September 23, fled the area. Only Abu George, desperate guardian of the two churches, remained. “Look at the windows, the state of the tiles, the cracks… Why are they doing this to us? »He asks, still stunned.. He remembers huddled against a wall at the time of the attack, stunned, as the refugees’ panicked screams filled the place of worship. Opposite, all the facades show varying degrees of damage in a city dotted with collapsed buildings.
“It is a crime”
“It is a world heritage site. We can’t let them bomb a place like this. protests Mohamed Awada, the deputy mayor. Whatever the reasons or with the pretext of the presence of one or two members of Hezbollah. It is a question of proportionality, it is a crime. There are no missile ramps here. Every time they attack one person, they kill entire families. It is also a message: we attack wherever we want and we do not care about your lives or your assets. »
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